SNOWY OWL. . L777 
SURNIA NYCTEA. 
SNOWY OWL. 
(PLatE 7.) 
Strix alba freti-hudsonis, Briss. Orn. i. p. 522 (1760). 
Strix nyctea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 152 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
(Thompson), (Macgillivray), (Selby), (Gould), (Degland), (Gerbe), Temminck, 
Yaumann, Schlegel, Sundevall, &e. 
Aluco diurnus, Gerini, Orn. Meth. Dig. i. p. 89, pl. lxxxxiii. (1767). 
Strix nivea, Thunb. Sv. Akad. Forh. 1798, p. 184. 
Strix candida, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. xiv (1801). 
Strix erminea, Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. vii. pt. 1, p. 251 (1809). 
Noctua nyctea (Linn.), Cuvier, Regne An. i. p. 332 (1817). 
Nyctea erminea (Steph.), Steph. Shaw’s Gen. Zool. xiii. pt. ii. p. 63 (1826). 
Surnia nyctea (Linn.), James. ed. Wils. Am. Orn. i. p. 92 (1831). 
Nyctia candida (Lath.), Swains. Classif. B. ii. p. 217 (1836). 
Nyctea nivea (Thunb.), Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 84 (1845). 
Leuchybris nyctea (Linn.), Sundev. Meth. Av. Tent. p. 106 (1872). 
Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.), apud Newt. ed. Yarr. Brit. B. 1. p. 187 (1872). 
Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.), apud Ridgway, var. arctica (Bart.), Ridgw. N. Amer. B. 
iii, p. 70 (1874). d 
Leuchybris scandiaca (Linn.), apud Meves, Ofv. Kongl. Vet.-Ak. Firh. 1879, p. 389. 
The Snowy Owl is a regular, though uncertain, visitor to the British 
Islands. Scarcely a year passes without a record of its capture in some part 
of Scotland; but in England and in Ireland it is less regular in its appear- 
ance. The Snowy Owl belongs to the class of ‘“‘ Gipsy migrants,’ who 
have no settled home in winter. It breeds on the tundras beyond the 
limit of forest-growth, or in similar climates at high elevations in less 
northerly latitudes, and it only leaves these breeding-grounds in conse- 
quence of the scarcity of food caused by exceptional cold. It is conse- 
quently only a partial migrant. Some remain throughout the winter in 
the frozen north; others retire to a greater or less distance during a storm 
or a harder frost than usual, and return when it is over. Some of these 
often wander very far in search of food; and it is only when the winters 
in the Arctic Regions are exceptionally mild that the outside stragglers 
do not reach our islands. In the Orkneys and the Shetlands scarcely a 
season passes without birds occurring, usually after northerly gales; whilst 
on the mainland it has been obtained in most of the Highland counties and 
those bordering the Firth of Clyde. The same may be said of the Hebrides 
and Western Isles, where, according to Gray, it is regarded as an almost 
regular spring visitant; but probably an irregular Jate winter guest would 
be more correct. In England, although of not quite such frequent occur- 
rence, it has without doubt occurred thrice in Northumberland, once 
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